Tag Archives: Gus

An Elk in Kansas

Aaron had to work this morning, but I wanted to do SOMETHING today. It was a bit warmer and a good day to go somewhere. I love Kansas for its wide open spaces and general tranquility, but it does seem to lack tourist attractions. Unless you want to visit the Agriculture Hall of Fame, the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, or the Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States.

I settled on the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, a bit of a drive, but we’ve never been there before and it has both bison and elk. Aaron and I have seen both in the wild several times at various National Parks, but our kids haven’t. In fact, the only National Park they’ve been to so far is our trip to Great Sand Dunes back in August. We probably should fix that soon.
2013-12-28_0002
The start of our trip. Reed told me that he wants a camera like mine. I explained that it’s something that could easily be broken or damaged by little hands. But, he can start learning and handed him the camera manual.

This quickly happened. Gus took the best nap he’s taken since he moved to a big boy bed. Score!
2013-12-28_0001

Unfortunately, we missed out on the tours, as it was so late in the day. We could see both a herd of bison and a heard of Elk in the distance.
2013-12-29_0001

We decided to drive around, hoping that we’d see something. And we spotted these guys.
2013-12-28_0004

We drove around a bit more, and unfortunately, the only additional wildlife we saw was some geese.

On our long drive home, we stopped for some Barbecue. It was on my bucket list of things that we needed to do with Andrei. Have I told you that Gus is in this adorable phase where he comes up to me often and says “I want a hug, please”? He’s started doing it with Lena, too.
2013-12-28_0003

 

He just presses his little body into hers. And, I love her reaction.

My Baby in a Big Boy Bed

He is growing up so fast. Earlier this week, he started regularly climbing out of his crib. He had only done it once before, and he began to do it at every naptime and morning. We quickly removed the front of his crib, converting it to a toddler bed.

Two days in a row, I’ve realized I haven’t heard from him in a bit and I’ve gone upstairs to find him asleep. Yesterday, it was in the middle of the floor on Reed’s pillow. But, today, it was like this:
2013-12-27_0003

How adorable is he?
2013-12-27_0002

He is becoming such a sweet little person. A phrase I hear about once a day is “I want a hug, please.” I bend down to scoop him up and when he is done, he runs back to playing.

He seems so big to me now, using more and more full sentences, eating soup with a spoon and developing more patience. Lena also seems so big to me now. But, he’s just a tiny bit bigger than she was when she came home, although certainly much more vocal and physical than she was just after her homecoming.

12/24/10.
PC250022

IMG_8741

Merry Christmas!

Ah, Christmas. I told the kids that they weren’t allowed to get up until it was light out. Of course, they were downstairs the second any sunlight came in their windows.

2013-12-26_0003

My favorite memories of 2013 present-opening:

  • Reed and Lena handed out gifts. When they tried to give Gus one of his, he just said “no”. They had a brief stand-off, where they tried to hand it to him repeatedly, and he kept calmly saying “no”. Until I finally told them to just set it down and he’d open the rest of his gifts later.
  • Another was when he opened his Yo Gabba Gabba DVD and stared at the case in wonder and confusion for about one whole minute. Finally, he smiled.
  • Reed and Lena exclaimed “all of our pictures!” when they looked at their photo albums that I had made from one cent Snapfish pictures and dollar store albums. They took time to look through them before moving on to the next gift.
  • Reed’s reaction to watching Gus and Lena open the gifts he had picked out for them. He was so, so excited to see them open what he had picked out for them. He got Lena a “purse”(makeup bag?) and Gus a Hot-Wheels car.
  • Both Reed and Lena’s reaction to Reed opening Lena’s gift to him. She picked out toy nunchuks for him, because he loves ninjas. And he loved it.

After the present excitement had died down, we crossed 3 things off of Reed’s winter break to-do list by decorating gingerbread men.
2013-12-26_0001

Gus told me he wanted to decorate a cookie, but I knew that would happen. Lena told me that she “accidentally ate part of it”. I knew kids + cookies + candy = inevitable munching, so I just asked them to decorate more than they ate, which Reed and Lena did without a problem.

The toy-of-this-Christmas is definitely Reed’s remote control car. Lena also got a remote control car and Gus got a little remote control robot, but Reed’s is the big hit. Gus loves it so much that I’m tempted to get him one of his birthday. 2013-12-26_0002

Merry Christmas, everyone!
2013-12-26_0004

‘Twas the Day Before Christmas…

Giant icicles hung from the home.
2013-12-25_0003

All the weimaraners were stirring,
2013-12-25_0001

Eager to roam.
2013-12-25_0002

Candles were lit, Silent Night sung.
2013-12-25_0006

And the last Advent card was finally un-hung.
2013-12-25_0004

A movie was watched, then kids tucked into bed,
Where they wiggled and giggled as legos danced in their heads.

Presents were scattered underneath the tree,
2013-12-25_0005

What could these gifts possibly be?

Tomorrow the children will come down to find
all of these presents with someone special in mind.
Paper will be ripped;
they’ll have quite a ball.
Now mama must sleep;
Merry Christmas to all!

Thankful

A few things that I am thankful for.

  1. My hardworking, ever forgiving, pretty much adorable husband.
  2. My loving, charming, too-clever-for-their-own-good kids.
  3. My family, who is just too far away.
  4. My great job, which in addition to being a financial blessing also surrounds me with encouraging and loving people.
  5. Our new friend asleep upstairs.
  6. A warm home on this cold and snowy night.
  7. Our abundance of food and anything else that we might possibly need.

IMG_8328